How to do sit-ups

If you’re looking to strengthen your abs, you can do sit-ups. Similar to a crunch, but instead of lifting your entire back off the floor, you just lift your upper back off the ground. This exercise helps isolate the abdominal muscles so that the hip muscles do not participate in the movement. After learning the basic crunches technique, you can do reverse crunches, cross crunches, side crunches, and cable crunches.

Table of Contents

Basic crunches

Lie on your back on the floor. Use a mattress or carpeted surface for comfort, but make sure the mattress isn’t too thick.

For more resistance, you should practice on an incline bench.
Some people like crunches on the balance ball.

Knee bend. Feet can be flat on the floor, or you can keep them suspended in the air during exercise to make the exercise more difficult.

Cross your arms in front of your chest. You can also place your hands behind your neck or head, but many people tend to pull their neck or head up during exercise, which puts extra strain on the spine. The head and neck should rest on the hands.

To increase resistance, you should hold weights on your chest or behind your head.

Lift your shoulders up with your abs and pause for a moment when you reach the highest position. It’s important that you don’t lift your entire back off the floor as this will create tension in your back, and such an extended movement won’t help develop six pack abs any faster. When the shoulders are off the ground, pause and hold the position for a full second (or longer).

You often want to pull your head forward (chin to chest) because it makes you feel like you’re lifting more, when it’s not. It’s a bad habit that increases your risk of injury. One way to prevent this is to always look up at the ceiling.
If you place your hands behind your head or neck, do not bring your elbows together. Keep elbows level with shoulders. Keeping your arms close to your head creates a tendency to push your head forward.
Exhale and contract your abs as you raise your shoulders.
If you’re learning How to Receive a Punch, you can do what Muay Thai fighters do: have someone punch you in the stomach while your stomach is tight to receive the punch.

Slowly lower yourself down as you inhale. Not just “dropping” people down. Your control during the descent also helps in working your abs.

Relax your belly before folding again.

Reverse crunches

Lie on your back on the floor. Place your hands on your stomach or face down at your sides.

Lift your feet off the floor. You can keep your knees bent 90 degrees or straighten your legs as much as you can, feet facing up.

Lift your hips off the ground with your abs. Be careful not to push the ground with your hands, back or head. If you can’t lift your hips with your abs, you’ll need to do more with a regular crunch. If you don’t, you’re just wasting your time because other parts of your body are working instead of your abs.

Other Variations

Cross belly. Follow the steps of a regular sit-up, but instead of lifting your shoulders off the ground in a level manner, you lift one shoulder to the opposite side (left shoulder up right and right shoulder lifted left). Alternate roles. This exercise targets the obliques (muscles on either side of the abdomen).

Tilted abdomen. Follow the steps of a regular sit-down, but lean both legs to one side (knees still bent and pressed, near the floor). Simultaneously lift both shoulders off the ground like a regular crunch. Since the upper body is twisted, you will feel the torque on the side. Bend several times to one side, then flip the legs over to the other side and repeat on the other side.

Crunches with cable. Stand and hold a cable. Pull the cable down by arching your back and contracting your abs.

Advice

Crunches are a simple and fun way to create a flat stomach surface, with rock-hard abs.
Women have a more natural curve than men in the lower back area, because their pelvis has a different shape. More natural fat accumulates in the buttocks, so it will lift the hips higher when they lie on their back. So women should consider adding extra padding under the back when doing crunches instead of trying to force the lower back to lie flat on the floor unnaturally. A simple way is to place a rolled towel or a suitable pillow under the back at the point of greatest curvature. Try rolling towels in different thicknesses until you feel comfortable.

Warning

Stop exercising if you feel pain in your back, as you may need advice from a physiotherapist or chiropractor.

Steps

Basic crunches

Reverse crunches

Other Variations

Advice

Warning

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